Outrageous Machine Maintenance

Tracy Bennett

August 3, 2005 — Of all the hands a piece of equipment passes through in its lifetime, used equipment brokers can relate more horror stories than anybody, except for accident investigators. Platforms bent beyond recognition. Missing steps and entry gates. Rigged controls. Equipment wholesalers have certainly seen it all.

 

Aerial work platforms and telescopic handlers, especially machines earning their keep for rental companies, take a considerable amount of abuse. Just ask any service department how many repairs are due to outright customer damage versus machine defect. In fact, the service records for nearly half of all the machines Lift and Access 360 has reviewed for its web-exclusive “On the Job” articles indicate at least some, and sometimes extensive, repairs due to customer maltreatment.

 

Enlarge Image Just one more of the many uses for duct tape — keeping the manual box attached to the rails of this scissor lift. For more humorous uses, see www.ducttapeguys.com.

So, when a certain wholesale equipment broker, who shall remain anonymous, shared the following photos with us, we really weren't surprised. Collected over the last six months, these three examples prove that no one is immune. Each one came to the wholesaler's yard from a different rental company.

 

Just as in life, hindsight allows us the opportunity to ask, “How could things get this bad.” Often what seems to be a situation beyond our control could actually have been affected by the choices we made. If you are saying to yourself, “Thank goodness machines don't look this bad in my yard,” you've missed the point. I'll bet if you look hard enough, any equipment owner with a sizeable fleet will inevitably find similar atrocities.

 

Enlarge Image Cotter pins are so underrated. Here's a new way to install limit switches.

The abuse itself is not really the issue but rather how it got to this point. Educating the end-user only gets you so far. Half the time people don't respect their own property, much less that which belongs to someone else. Yet, image does carry a certain amount of weight. The nicer your machine looks when it rolls out the door, the more likely the end-user will think twice about messing it up.

 

Simply keeping track of the equipment once it is on the job is also a contributing factor. When equipment sitting idle gets “borrowed” by someone other than the subcontractor who rented the machine, there's no sense of responsibility.

 

Pressure to get the job done is another agent assisting abuse. On site, a small bit of damage, such as a missing decal, doesn't seem like a big deal. Certainly the machine works fine, and then there's that job to finish.

 

Enlarge Image Missing a directional decal for your controller? A Sharpie® permanent marker does the trick. For some interesting background on the Sharpie, go to http://dirs.org/wiki-article-tab.cfm/sharpie.

There's also the unavoidable attitude that the equipment is simply a means to an end. My computer and its link to the world through the Internet is my most important tool to get my job done. Yet, I really don't want to take the time to run minor software updates and keep putting off buying a surge protector with battery backup.

 

There's no right answer to the problem, but remaining vigilant is at least a start. Meanwhile, it helps to keep a sense a humor when faced with such outrageous solutions to machine maintenance.